The present invention relates generally to stored value tokens. More particularly, the present invention relates to a metallic stored value token and a method of manufacturing the same with improved reflectivity characteristics. Still more particularly, an invention as described herein may relate to a coin-shaped stored value token having a machine readable identifier applied according to a novel method of manufacture.
Stored value tokens are often manufactured and distributed in the form of paper certificates or credit card sized plastic gift cards. The ubiquity of the plastic card format makes traditional gift cards difficult to distinguish from one another or from credit cards. As currency becomes increasingly digital, coins are becoming a novelty. Currency-based coins are becoming less desirable because of their comparatively low ascribed value and/or fixed value; whereas a stored value token like a credit card can be associated with any financial amount, a currency coin is limited only to its face value. The number of coins one would have to carry to match the stored value of a credit card or gift card is impractically high. Thus, fewer people carry coins than cards, making the coin a relative rarity in today's economic market.
This increasing rarity is contrary to a coin's usefulness as a unique form factor. The weight and spatial presence of a metal coin is easier to detect and distinguish from other wallet-stored or pocketed items. Unlike cards, which must be visually confirmed in order to distinguish them from other coins, a coin can be felt by touch, its texture, size, and weight discerned, and its practicality identified therefrom without necessitating visual distinction. Thus, a stored value token configured in the form factor of a metallic coin may be more readily distinguishable from card-based form factors.
To implement a metallic stored value token such as a coin, it is necessary to solve the problem of dynamic tokenization: the ascription of a dynamic value to a static object. Gift cards and similar form factors use unique identifiers such as barcodes or magnetic stripes to store account information that a card reader can associate with a user account and determine a balance associated with the card. The application of a magnetic stripe to a coin is impractical because of both magnetic interference and an inability to use the coin effectively in magnetic strip readers. Similarly, certain applications of a barcode have been a practical difficulty because of the reflective nature of the metal body. Whereas printing ink on metal is currently known to one skilled in the art of printing, the printing of ink on metal does not solve the reflective problems associated with scanning a barcode printed on metal. Linear barcode scanners have much greater difficulty reading the barcode via reflected illumination because of interference from reflected and refracted light bouncing off of the metallic structure. Image scanners similarly have trouble with metal surfaces when the reflection of ambient lights and colors interfere with the barcode pattern.
Thus, what is needed is a method for producing a metallic stored value token with a machine-readable identifier where the identifier is made more easily readable by a scanner device. A novel method for producing such a value token involves roughening a portion of the metallic structure of the value token to a matte, non-reflective finish, applying an adhesion-improving primer to at least the roughened portion, and inking an identifier onto the roughened portion on top of the primer. By producing a metallic value token where only a portion of the structure associated with the identifier has a comparatively matte finish, the identifier becomes more easily discernible by traditional scanning devices such as barcode scanners and image scanners without compromising the distinctive and identifiable reflective metal finish of the entire value token. The addition of a primer layer in between the matte metal portion and the ink improves the adhesion of the ink to the metal and prevents the ink from being easily scraped off either intentionally or due to wear.